After the second consecutive election in which the incumbent party has been at least partially booted from power over sluggish growth in employment, it is useful to take a look back briefly at the jobs picture. The New York Times Economix. First, David Leonhardt demonstrates that a recovery in employment did indeed begin the first half of 2010, though it is slowing down right now. He offers this three year moving graph of change in employment (excluding temporary Census workers who would gain and then lose jobs regardless of economy circumstances. Remember that this graph is of change, thus anything below the X-axis represents job loss even when rising. Anything above the X-axis represents jobs gained even when falling.
That looks decent, if not wonderful, but Catherine Rampell puts the job gains in perspective comparing the change in employment from pre-recession levels for this recession and several other post-War recessions. Here the picture looks far less encouraging.